


someone you maybe might love

by blazeofglory



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-19 09:57:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11310990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blazeofglory/pseuds/blazeofglory
Summary: Jack and Kent: the three happy years before the draft.





	someone you maybe might love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daydoodles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydoodles/gifts).



> _In your car, the radio up  
>  In your car, the radio up  
> We keep trying to talk about us  
> I'm someone you maybe might love  
> I'll be your quiet afternoon crush  
> Be your violent overnight rush  
> Make you crazy over my touch_  
> \-- _Supercut_ \- Lorde

Jack never had a lot of friends growing up. He was always awkward and ugly, and his parents’ fame alienated him from the other kids at school. He had a few friends, because he wasn’t completely socially inept when he put in the effort, but he’d never had a  _ best  _ friend. 

When Jack turned 16, that changed. 

Kent Parson was a late addition to their team, having freshly moved from New York to Canada. Jack didn’t think too much about Kent at first, except to notice that he was good-looking and sure on his skates. Kent befriended a bunch of the other guys a lot faster than Jack had, charm and wit coming easily to him. 

It had probably only been a matter of time until Kent befriended Jack too; especially once they were on the same line. 

Saturday post-practice lunches at the pizza place down the street from the rink had become a tradition over the course of the season. Jack would always talk to the guys a little, but he mostly kept to himself, sitting by Jake and Brian, who were both also relatively introverted guys. They talked to each other about video games sometimes, and they always tried to include Jack. They were nice. 

It was a break in habit when Kent sat down next to Jack at lunch one week, instead of at the other end of the table with the rowdier guys who got scolded by the waitress at least once every visit. 

“Is this seat taken?” Kent asked, gesturing towards the obviously empty spot next to Jack. He sat down in it before Jack had even finished nodding. 

They ate their pizza in relative quiet for a few moments, while the rest of the team made a racket all around them. 

Finally, feeling awkward and a bit rude for having not said anything, Jack turned to Kent with a bit of a nervous smile and offered, “Do you want to hear this new idea I have for practice drills?” 

Kent immediately grinned, which was actually kind of gross because he had a mouth full of pepperoni, but Jack couldn’t help but smile back. The talked about hockey and school and even a few movies that they had both seen, getting swept up in the conversation to the point where Jack realized as they were leaving that he’d barely eaten anything for lunch at all. 

He couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the evening. 

 

-

 

Jack was 17 when he realized he was in love.

Kent had become a permanent fixture in his life--at the rink and at school and even in Jack’s house. It had become habit to head back to Jack’s after school and practice every day, where they would then abscond to Jack’s room and sprawl out on his bed, half doing homework and half gossiping about their teammates. 

Halfway through some elaborate story about Kyle and a goat, Kent paused, raising an eyebrow at Jack. 

“You’re staring at me,” Kent said, smirking just a little. His lips were winter-chapped and bitten red, and Jack couldn’t seem to stop himself from looking down at them again. When his eyes looked back up to meet Kent’s, which were the same deep blue as Jack’s bedspread, the smile was gone from Kent’s face, replaced by an almost pensive look. 

“You’re telling a story,” Jack pointed out, trying to play it off like he hadn’t just been fantasizing about running his hands through Kent’s messy hair and dragging him into a kiss. “It’s just polite to look at someone when they’re talking, didn’t your mom teach you manners?”

It was a weak chirp, but Kent laughed nonetheless. Whenever they were in public, Kent would laugh quietly, and Jack hadn’t realized that that laugh was a result of self-consciousness until he’d heard Kent’s real laugh for the first time, almost a year ago. It was snorting and loud and Kent’s whole face went pink, and it-- well. Jack loved it. 

“You’re staring at me like I have something on my face, though,” Kent protested, still smiling and flushed. “What are you thinking about, Zimms?” 

Jack shrugged, an awkward jerking movement, looking away from Kent’s face before he could do anything rash. 

“Is everything okay?” Kent asked, softer now, reaching over to place a warm hand on Jack’s knee. Jack looked back up, startled, and met those dark eyes again. 

“Yeah, I just--” Jack hesitated for a moment. Kent stayed quiet, letting Jack think. After a long, drawn out moment, in which the only thing that Jack could hear was a distant bird singing outside his window and the only thing he could feel was Kent’s hand on him. Jack let his own hand fall over Kent’s. 

If he’d thought about it, Jack would have expected his hands to be shaking and a rush of anxiety flooding his brain. But Jack felt calm, and when he looked at Kent, he felt  _ sure _ . 

“Sometimes, I…” Jack took a deep breath and did not drop Kent’s gaze. “Sometimes, when I think about you, it’s not, like… in the friend way.” 

Kent withdrew his hand from under Jack’s, but before Jack could panic, Kent was lacing their fingers together properly, and he could breathe again. 

There was a hint of a smile on Kent’s lips and a faint blush on his freckled cheeks, and he asked so softly, “How do you think about me?” 

Jack swallowed thickly, throat dry. “I think about you all the time,” he admitted, finding himself inexplicably smiling too. “I-- I always want to be with you, you know?”

Kent inched closer on the bed, Jack tracking every incremental shift that he made. They were suddenly very, very close. Jack was distantly aware of his heart pounding in his chest. 

“Do you want to kiss me, Jack?” 

Kent was close enough for Jack to count his freckles. 

Jack answered that question by leaning in just a little, and-- Kent met him halfway. The kiss was tentative and soft, and when they parted after a few minutes, Jack’s lips were tingling. 

The smile on Kenny’s face was something beautiful to behold. 

“I think I’m in love with you,” Kent said, sudden and breathless, setting the butterflies in Jack’s stomach wild once more. 

Jack’s  _ me too _ was swallowed between their mouths as Kent kissed him again.

 

-

 

Jack still didn’t have a lot of friends, but he was okay with that. His team respected him and Kent as their alternate captains, and he was friendly enough with everyone. He didn’t need to step outside of his comfort zone to make friends, because why would he even need them when he had Kent? 

When Jack turned 18, Kent kissed him at midnight like it was New Year’s Eve. In a way, it sort of was-- a new year of life, another important step in growing up, inching closer to the future. The new year was going to bring a lot of change. 

They spent the entire day together, and almost every other day that summer too. 

“We’re not going to be far,” Kent said, sounding as sure of himself as ever. They were lounging in Jack’s backyard, sprawled out in the grass without a care for stains on their clothes. Jack’s mom would scold him for that later, but the thought didn’t even cross his mind. He turned on his side, looming over Kent just a little. It was a hell of a view. 

“We’re not very far right now,” Jack said with a smile. Kent rolled his eyes. 

“When we’re drafted,” Kent elaborated, though they both knew that Jack had understood the whole time. “One of us will be in Vegas and the other in Seattle, which is only, what, a two hour flight?” 

“Something like that,” Jack agreed, just to appease Kent. “We can fly in and bother each other all the time.” 

“I can’t wait to bother you,” Kent teased, and Jack laughed. 

“I think you’ve gotten a head start already.” 

“Any more sass and I’m throwing you in the pool,” Kent threatened, even as he continued to grin up at Jack. 

“I think I can take you.” 

Kent propped himself up on his elbows, mischief in his eyes. “I’d like to see you try.”

Jack responded the only way he could-- pressing Kent back into the soft grass with a searing kiss. 

Overhead, the sky was clear and the sun was hot. Under Jack, Kent was smiling and sunburnt and bursting with excitement. Jack’s anxiety about the future would come soon, he knew that, but for now, he had Kent. 

That was all he needed. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this, daydoodles! I absolutely love writing these two actually getting to be happy.


End file.
